H-JAPAN
November 20, 2006
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:02:49 -0500
From: H-Japan Review Editor David Wittner <dwittner@utica.edu>
Subject: H-Japan Book Review: Dierkes on Roesgaard, _Japanese Education and the
Cram School Business_
H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-Japan@h-net.msu.edu (November 2006)
Marie Højlund Roesgaard. _Japanese Education and the Cram School Business:
Functions, Challenges and Perspectives of the Juku_. Copenhagen: Nordic
Institute of Asian Studies Press, 2006. 203 pp. Illustrations. No price
listed (cloth), ISBN 8-7911-1491-8.
Reviewed for H-Japan by Julian Dierkes, University of British Columbia
Marie Roesgaard's book is the first English-language book-length attempt to
grapple with the role of "cram schools" within the Japanese education
system. Given the almost complete absence of a social-scientific literature
on _juku_ in English or Japanese, Roesgaard's book does scholarship on
Japanese education a great favor by providing an initial classification of
different types of _juku_. Moreover, through this classification, she opens
up an entire field of new questions for further research.
Few discussions of the Japanese system of education fail to mention the
important role that _juku_ play in this system. Typically associated with
such clichéd portrayals of Japanese education like "exam hell" and the
"kyoiku mama," _juku_ have long been seen as serving the needs of Japanese
students and their parents in increasing chances at being admitted to elite
educational institutions at subsequent levels of education. Roesgaard
discusses the different varieties of _juku_ that exist on a continuum, from
the most competitive and competition-oriented ones to other _juku_ that are
more holistic in their educational aims and emphasize care-giving aspects to
a greater extent.
Roesgaard organizes her book into three sections, presenting the context,
the players, and the motivations and situations of players involved in the
_juku_ business, respectively. Given the paucity of existing data,
Roesgaard's most important contribution comes in parts 1 and 2, rather than
in the analytical conclusions that she provides in part 3. In her
introduction, Roesgaard gives an overview of the role of _juku_ within
Japanese education. While this discussion helps to situate _juku_ within the
system of education, it also reveals one of the shortcomings of Roesgaard's
approach. When faced with incomplete and inadequate data, Roesgaard
continues to work with these data as "the best thing we have got" without
further subjecting it to sustained, critical scrutiny. The many surveys that
her discussion relies on are thus presented in a fairly uncritical fashion
even though Roesgaard herself raises important doubts about their validity.
While I am sympathetic to the attempt to make do with inadequate data, I
think that some of the data presented are so flawed that they ought to be
disregarded entirely. None of the surveys discussed seem to include any
discussion of the definition of _juku_ in their questions, including
official surveys that do not distinguish between different types of _juku_.
This is particularly ironic given the impressive contribution Roesgaard
makes, especially in pointing to the diversity of _juku_. Likewise,
Roesgaard bases a significant portion of her claims on surveys conducted by
Benesse Corporation, a large player in the supplementary education market.
It should be noted critically, that these surveys would appear to have to be
aimed at market research rather than any more social-scientific
understanding of _juku_. While this may not disqualify these survey results
automatically and entirely, Roesgaard gives readers few reasons to trust
these surveys to the extent necessary to bolster her claims and conclusions.
The introductory discussion also remains somewhat unclear on the precise
aims of the book. While many of the important questions raised by the role
of _juku_ in education are mentioned and touched upon (the role of Monkasho
[Ministry of Education] policies regarding _juku_, the consumer choices made
by parents, the relationship between _juku_ and conventional schools, etc.),
Roesgaard does not address these questions in a focused or systematic
manner, nor does she select any one of them for particular scrutiny. While
this is understandable given the dearth of an existing literature on _juku_,
it detracts somewhat from the overall impact of the book in setting the
scene for further research.
Part 1 of the book concentrates on presenting a typology of _juku_. Given
the undifferentiated treatment of _juku_ in the existing literature, this is
a contribution that is not to be underestimated. Roesgaard proposes to
classify _juku_ along eight different dimensions: competitive vs. nurturing
environment; focus on entrance examinations vs. concentration on current
schoolwork; connection to regular schooling; academic grouping of students;
teaching materials used; size of the school in terms of students attending
and number of branches, if any; admission procedures; and nature of
advertising. While some of these variables are discussed primarily in
dichotomous terms, they add up to a continuum of _juku_ types clustered
around four distinct varieties: _shingaku juku_ with their focus on exam
preparation; _hoshu juku_ concentrating on remedial work; _kyosai juku_ that
cater to students in danger of falling between the cracks of educational
institutions for academic or social reasons; and _doriru juku_ that offer
little instruction, but instead focus on the practicing of basic skills.
Because the differences between these types reflect parents' and students'
choices as well as students' position in conventional schooling, Roesgaard
convincingly presents this categorization as capturing the most significant
variability among _juku_.
Part 2 of the book presents exemplary case studies of _juku_ and places them
within the classificatory scheme introduced earlier. While Roesgaard makes a
significant contribution in this area as well simply by beginning a
scholarly discussion of _juku_, the descriptions and analysis of the _juku_
covered in this section are relatively thin. Given limited site visits to
the _juku_, Roesgaard largely reproduces the _juku_'s view of themselves and
their teaching. Nevertheless, her introduction to some of the most
well-known _juku_, like Kawaijuku offers glimpses into institutions that are
often portrayed in the popular press and extensively analyzed in Japanese
advice manuals, yet rarely examined by scholars. It should be emphasized
that by offering case studies of Yotsuya-Otsuka, Nichinoken, and SAPIX,
Roesgaard provides a glimpse into the very top-end of middle-school entrance
examination preparation. Interestingly, one of the _juku_ portrayed here,
Yotsuya-Otsuka, was acquired by another education corporation, Nagase
Brothers, in September 2006 in a sign of the consolidation of an industry
facing a declining customer base. By comparing different _juku_ and placing
them within her analytical scheme, however, Roesgaard significantly bolsters
her important message as to the diversity of the _juku_ market. Her
discussion of the nurturing aspects of _juku_, in the _hoshu_ category
especially, also corrects the often-heard misperception of _juku_ as devoted
exclusively to exam preparation by rote learning and drill.
Part 3 of the book attempts to place the previous chapters in a more
analytical framework focused on "The Whys, the Hows and the Future."
Initially, this section addresses the curious position _juku_ occupy in
Japanese educational policy-making, as Monkasho has largely ignored their
existence except for some discussions of _juku_'s potential role in
life-long learning initiatives. Yet, _juku_ have been profoundly affected by
educational policy, for example through the thinning of curriculum content
and the abolition of Saturday schooling.
Some of Roesgaard's classificatory discussions are quite novel and original.
For example, her emphasis on the care-giving functions of and contributions
by _juku_ points to an important, understudied, and perhaps increasingly
significant element in the establishment of _juku_, especially in urban
areas.
Throughout the book, Roesgaard discusses the financial expenditures for
education that families incur by sending children to _juku_. Nation-wide
average expenditures would seem to suggest that, in a nation as rich as
Japan, _juku_ attendance might not have implications for social
stratification. Yet Roesgaard's portrayals of some of the most ambitious
_juku_ show that for a so-called "elite course" of exam preparation with
costs upward of ¥1mio even the budgets of middle-class families may be
stretched in metropolitan areas.
Given the lack of an academic literature on _juku_, despite the prominent
role these schools play within the education system, Roesgaard's book is
assured an important place in the literature on supplementary education. As
an initial volley, Roesgaard provides some of the important groundwork for
further research by offering a classification of _juku_ and by raising many
of the pressing and interesting questions that will make further work on
_juku_ an important part of the literature on Japanese education, especially
in a time of wide-spread worry about the public school system.
Copyright (c) 2006 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits
the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,
educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the
author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and
H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses
contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.
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